


Secret Bonding

by sinsajo



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Cuddling, M/M, right about after they steal sahelanthropus, young mantis and Eli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 12:46:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinsajo/pseuds/sinsajo
Summary: To fill the prompt from the mgs secret santa event: 117 "Liquidmantis night cuddles.Eli isn’t used to physical contact outside of fighting. He’s extremely touch starved but he’d rather die than admitting to it. At some point night cuddling becomes a thing, they hold tightly all night and pretend nothing happened in the morning. It’s absurd and pointless with their mental link, but if Mantis isn’t gonna say anything, neither is Eli."





	Secret Bonding

Eli barely blinked as he stared up at the stars thoughtfully, laying on his back on the hard, dusty ground and his head resting on his folded arms. It was such a pretty sight to see, and it was so peaceful to lay back on the dirt like this, the fire almost completely out by his side, most of his crew of children already asleep at this point in their little improvised huts… but there was only one left, and the red-haired boy was staring right at him. He felt a soft nudge in his mind, as if someone had gently poked at his brain, and he made eye contact with Tretij with a face.

 

“What?” he asked in a low tone, hearing not too far from them as one of his “men” snored quite impressively. He saw the kid scratch at his exposed neck, where a mosquito had probably feasted on his blood.

 

“Tired,” he heard the voice inside his head, and indeed, it sounded whiny and quite sleepy.

 

“Then go to sleep, It’s not like there’s anyone keeping you from doing so,” he said a bit louder, lifting his eyes to the stars again. It was a shame, but they had lost their initial hypnotic quality and now were nothing more than dots on the black sky.

 

“You are,” he heard him again, in his mind, “you keep me from sleep,” he continued in his rudimentary English, but Eli understood him just fine; was proud of him even, every time he opened his mouth… or well, his brain. He knew it was quite the task for Tretij, to learn an entirely new language under so much pressure from scratch. He either adapted, or was left behind, and he knew that too well. The rest of the crew spoke either English, Afrikaans or Kikongo, not one of them Russian like him. Luckily for him, Eli was a pretty decent English teacher, and didn't mind being put to the test with such a massive language barrier.

 

“How? I’m not making any goddamn noise. You’re the noisy one here, stop breathing so hard,” He lifted his dark eyebrows as he chuckled, jerking his head towards Tretij’s gas mask covered face. God was he terrible at being sneaky with that thing, especially if he was worked up about something. He guessed he was a bit frustrated with the bug bite being oh so uncontrollably itchy. With his long nails, he had probably already even broken the skin.

 

He heard a loud and raspy sigh come out of the mask, as he saw both of his sleeve-covered hands go rest at his slender thighs.

 

“Your mind loud. Think too much,” he decided on saying after a moment, this time through his lips. It wasn’t always that he actually spoke out loud to Eli, and every time it happened, Eli’s eyes widened in surprise. He wouldn’t admit it, but he actually really liked that raspy, weak excuse for a voice. Probably because it belonged to Tretij, and to no one else.

 

“Ugh,” Eli closed his eyelids, not knowing how to respond. He was right after all, his mind was always working at its full capacity, thinking about this or that or whichever plan (or plans) he had up his sleeve... That would have been fine under any normal circumstances, but the circumstances at hand were nowhere near normal. He rolled on the ground then, letting out a grunt, and finally got on his two feet, using his hands to dust at his clothes. “Fine. Let’s go to bed.”

 

Eli walked past the sitting figure by the fire and made his way to the improvised hut nearest to Sahelanthropus, and quickly got inside, sensing Tretij make his way towards the same tent, levitating. He got comfortable in the dirty blankets as best as he could, not really caring for how uncomfortable their bed was as much as his men did. He was used to sleeping in even worse conditions, so sleeping like this, on the dirt ground, wasn't that bad at all. He knew Tretij didn’t really like it, but he had yet to hear him make a vocal protest about it. They weren’t in place to demand for much more after all, at least not for now.

 

He heard Tretij’s feet hit the ground softly just as he put up one of his slender, yet muscular arms to use as a pillow, and eyed him for a moment as he approached him. He looked the other way as soon as he sat down and tried to get comfortable, only a few centimeters away. He could barely feel the heat radiating from his body, and it made his skin get covered in goosebumps. He swallowed.

 

“The mask,” Eli said softly, and the reminder made Tretij nod before he took it off and placed it right beside him. It had been a while already since he had allowed Eli to see him barefaced, and it was uncomfortable to sleep with the thing anyways. He was more than okay with putting it aside.

 

There was silence right after Tretij was done getting as comfortable as he could on the dirt, burrowing from Eli’s blanket. it was a long, uncomfortable silence, that only seemed to get worse as he noticed everything outside of their little tent becoming quiet as well. The boys, the animals, insects included. It was probably around 1 AM, he noted. He had always prided himself with having an almost flawless inner clock that didn’t get screwed even when he hadn’t had a chance to look at a clock in ages.

 

Eli closed his eyes at last, feeling cold. The blanket barely helped, and his skin was starting to get goosebumps again, this time from the chills running over his tan skin. It was so cold and… lonely. He had little Mantis right there beside him, but something was missing, and he was beginning to get anxious about it. ‘ _Why hasn’t he gotten closer yet_?’ he thought, furrowing his eyebrows. Nights were always there same. They got in their shared tent, got comfortable, and sooner than later, Tretij latched onto him for dear life in an attempt at cuddling, even though Eli had still to figure out why. Truly? he didn't care much for the why. He only knew that he liked it quite a lot, and was getting frustrated at the boy’s lack of touch **.**

 

Then, as if he had heard his thoughts, Mantis closed the distance between them and cuddled as close to his body as possible without making a single sound. Eli opened his eyes wide, feeling his cheeks start to burn. Leave it to Eli to forget his partner in crime was a fucking _mind reader_. He swallowed thickly, hoping to God Tretij didn’t say a single word about his needy thoughts, or else he'd literally die right then and there, he would be completely ruined as the leader of the pack, would be made fun of for being needy and touch starved to the eleventh power, would be-

 

“Shh…” he heard by his neck, and the heat of his breath sent a shiver down his spine. It was so warm, so close, and it got the point across. He wouldn’t say anything as long as Eli shut his mind up and got to sleep.

 

With a light sigh, Eli searched for Tretij’s cold hand and held it tightly, providing some heat to the skinny boy. The other responded by hugging him closer, and even throwing a bony leg over his.

 

He smiled lightly. This was good. It felt safe, warm, human. He loved it. He wished he could feel this way 24/7, but he knew himself better than anyone, and knew that his pride was something he couldn’t quite compete against. Sure it felt nice, but he would be mortified if Mantis opened his mouth to remind him the next morning of how much peace and happiness and comfort he projected through their mental link. Thankfully, the puzzling boy never said a word… And he hoped that would be so forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Merry Christmas!


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